Ukraine’s Arseniy Yatsenyuk hits Hill, praises U.S.

Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk of Ukraine praised a package of loan guarantees that the United States has pledged to aid his country, calling it a “first real and concrete step” to “stabilize the situation” in the beleaguered eastern European nation.

Yatsenyuk met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday evening after visiting President Barack Obama at the White House earlier in the day. The prime minister’s visit came shortly after the panel approved a package of aid to Ukraine and sanctions targeting Russian and other officials responsible for the crisis in Ukraine.

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“The American people — the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. administration — already demonstrated a strong support to the Ukrainian people and the strong support for territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence,” Yatsenyuk told reporters on Capitol Hill after the roughly hourlong meeting.

The Obama administration has pledged $1 billion in loan guarantees to the Ukrainian government, and the House has passed legislation providing that assistance. The loan guarantee provisions in the Senate bill essentially mirror the House language, but the Senate package is much broader, with sanctions and reforms to the International Monetary Fund that are controversial among some Republicans.

When the issue of the differences between the two bills was raised — and the subsequent delays that they could cause in getting assistance to his country — Yatsenyuk responded: “It always takes time to make good things.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will make this the first item that his chamber takes up once senators return from recess on March 24, said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the foreign relations panel’s chairman.

In a brief question-and-answer exchange with reporters, Yatsenyuk also urged diplomacy and international cooperation in order to ease the crisis in the Crimea region of Ukraine in which Russian forces have intervened.

“We believe that we need to fix this crisis in a peaceful manner, using all political and diplomatic tools,” Yatsenyuk said. “And Russia is to respect an international law and stick to its international obligations.”

“This is not the problem between just Russia and Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk continued. “And we want to be very clear on this particular issue. This is the global problem. If Russia goes further, this will totally and entirely undermine the global security. It’s our joint problem and we are to act in concert in order to tackle it.”

Yatsenyuk was also scheduled to meet with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), but that was called off because of scheduling issues, a spokesman for Boehner said.